“Sorry I didn’t get there sooner, then. Hi, I’m Kirito.”
“Um, nice to meet you.” He grasped Kirito’s outstretched hand and bowed deeply. “Wait, no!” Recon leaped backward again. “Are you sure about this, Leafa? What if he’s a spy?”
“I had my doubts at first, too. But he seems a bit too airheaded to be a spy.”
“Hey, that’s messed up!”
Recon watched Leafa and Kirito laugh, suspicion in his eyes, then cleared his throat to get their attention.
“Sigurd and the rest are already sitting down in Daffodil Hall. They’re going to divvy up the items there.”
“Oh, I see. Umm…”
When killed by an enemy player, any character had a 30 percent chance of his or her equipment being stolen. However, when in a party, insurance slots were available to hold items of particular value. If the player was killed, that item would automatically be transferred to another party member for safekeeping.
Anything of value from the day’s hunting party was tagged as insurance, which meant that as the last survivor of the group, Leafa wound up with all the spoils. The salamanders knew that, hence their persistence in chasing her down. Thanks to Kirito, however, she was able to bring the entire haul back to Swilvane.
Normally, the party would rendezvous back in a tavern so that all members, surviving or slain, could redistribute the loot. Leafa considered for a moment before answering Recon.
“I’ll pass. None of the items fit my skills, anyway. I’ll leave them with you to split up among the others.”
“Uh…you’re not coming?”
“Nope. I promised Kirito a free meal.”
“…”
Now Recon gave Kirito an appraising look of an entirely different sort.
“Don’t get any funny ideas, okay?” She gave the toes of Recon’s boots a kick, and then opened up a trade window, dumping all of the day’s spoils into his inventory. “Just shoot me a message when the next hunt is scheduled, and I’ll participate if the time works out. See you later!”
“Um, Leafa…”
But she was growing uncomfortable under the scrutiny. After forcing a premature end to the conversation, Leafa grabbed Kirito’s sleeve and pulled him away.
“So was that guy your boyfriend?”
“Was he your lover?”
“Excuse me?!” Leafa tripped on the paving stones at the simultaneous questions from Kirito and Yui. Her wings spread wide as she caught her balance. “No way! He’s just a party member!”
“You two seemed pretty close for in-game acquaintances.”
“Well, I do know him in real life—he’s a classmate at school. But that’s it.”
“Playing a VRMMO with your classmate, huh? That sounds fun,” Kirito said wistfully, but Leafa grimaced.
“It’s not all great, actually. Sometimes it reminds you of the homework you need to do.”
“Ha-ha-ha, good point.”
They made their way down an alley as they chatted. The occasional passing sylph did a double take at Kirito’s black hair, but the sight of Leafa accompanying him kept them from voicing any suspicions. Leafa wasn’t the most active player in the game, but she was well known around town for winning Swilvane’s regular fighting tournaments on multiple occasions.
Eventually, a cozy tavern-inn came into view. It was the Lily of the Valley, a favorite of Leafa’s for their excellent dessert selection.
She pushed open the swinging door and surveyed the room finding there were no players inside. In real time, it was early evening, so there would be some time yet before people finished their adventures for the night and came back to celebrate with a drink.
She and Kirito sat down at a window table in the back.
“It’s all on me, so order whatever you want.”
“In that case…”
“Just don’t eat too much, or it’ll be rough after logging out,” Leafa said, eyeing the tempting dessert menu.
Mysteriously enough, the virtual feeling of fullness after eating a meal in Alfheim did not disappear for a while once out of the game. The ability to eat all the sweets she could stand without worrying about calories was one of the biggest draws of a VRMMO for Leafa. The downside was her mother’s scolding when she showed up for dinner without an appetite.
It wasn’t uncommon to see news articles about people suffering from malnutrition because they used the system as a dieting aid. Even worse were the heavy players who spent their entire lives in the game and starved to death because the in-game food tricked them into forgetting to eat.
Leafa ordered a fruit bavarois, Kirito a nut tart, and Yui a cheese cookie, to Leafa’s surprise. For drinks, they had a bottle of spiced wine. The NPC waitress set their orders on the table as soon as they’d placed them.
“Well, let’s make it official: Thanks for saving me.”
They clinked their glasses of odd green wine, and Leafa threw the cold liquid down her parched throat. Kirito refilled her glass just as quickly and grinned at her.
“Eh, it just happened that way…Those guys sure were eager for that fight, though. Do you get lots of those PK gangs here?”
“Well, salamanders and sylphs are at odds to begin with. Our territories are adjacent, so there’s constant clashing in the hunting grounds between us, and there’s been lots of competition for power. It’s only recently that there have been organized PKs like that, though. I’m pretty sure they must be planning an assault on the World Tree soon…”
“Speaking of which, I need you to teach me about the World Tree.”
“That’s right, you mentioned that. But why?”
“I want to get to the top of it.”
She gave him an exasperated look. But he wasn’t joking—his black eyes were shining earnestly.
“Well…that’s what every player in the game wants to do. In fact, it’s the greatest quest in the game of ALfheim Online.”
“Meaning?”
“You know about the flight limits, right? Every race in the game can only fly for about ten minutes at a time, max. But whichever race reaches the floating city atop the World Tree first—and meets Fairy King Oberon—will all be reborn as a new, higher race called alfs. After that, you’ll be able to fly as long and far as you want.”
“I see,” Kirito murmured, taking a bite of his nut tart. “It’s an enticing story. Does anyone know the way to get to the top of the tree?”
“Within the roots beneath the tree is a giant dome. There’s an entrance in the roof of the dome that lets you climb up the inside of the tree, but the NPC guardians that watch over the dome are superpowerful. A bunch of the different races have tried to challenge them, but we’ve been wiped out every time. The salamanders are the most powerful race at the moment. They’re probably mustering forces now, gathering money for equipment and items, thinking the next time’s the charm.”
“So these guardians are that strong, huh?”
“It’s insane. ALO opened a year ago. What game has a quest you can’t beat even after a year of play?”
“Good point…”
“Well, last autumn, one of the major ALO fan sites started a petition to have RCT rebalance the quest.”
“Oh, really? And…?”
“They gave us this canned response. ‘The game is properly balanced according to the team’s specifications.’ Lately, a lot of people are saying that our current strategy is never going to work.”
“Could it be that a major story quest’s been missed, or that it’s simply impossible for a single race to conquer on its own?”
Leafa was about to put another spoonful of bavarois in her mouth but stopped to give Kirito a surprised look. “That’s a very sharp idea. As it happens, that’s what we’re doing now—checking around to make sure we haven’t missed any quests. But if it’s the latter, that’ll never happen.”
“Never?”
“I mean, it’s a contradiction. The quest is only beatable by the first race to complete it. Who’s going to
help another race complete the quest if it just means losing out on the prize?”
“So you’re saying…the World Tree is essentially impossible to climb…?”
“In my opinion. I mean, there are other quests, and you can always raise your crafting skills…But it’s hard to give up on it once you’ve learned how fun it is to fly…Still, I’m sure we’ll get it someday, even if it takes a hundred years…”
“That’ll be too late!” Kirito muttered darkly.
Leafa looked up with a start and saw a deep furrow in his brow, his lips twisted as he gritted his teeth in frustration.
“Papa…?” The pixie put down the cookie she’d been holding two-handed and flew over to land on Kirito’s shoulder. She rubbed a tiny hand on the boy’s cheek to comfort him. A few moments later, he slumped down in resignation.
“I’m sorry to startle you,” he said quietly. “I have to get to the top of that tree.”
Kirito stared right into her, his eyes as sharp and shining as a finely honed blade. Leafa suddenly realized that her heart had begun to beat much faster. She took a quick sip of wine to hide her fluster.
“Why is it…so urgent?”
“I’m…looking for someone.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s hard to explain…”
He gave her a weak smile. But his eyes seemed to be hiding a deep pool of despair. They were eyes that she’d seen somewhere before.
“Well…thanks for the grub, Leafa. I appreciate all the advice. I’m glad you were the first person I ran into.” He made to get up, but Leafa unconsciously reached out to grab his arm.
“W-wait. Are you going…to the World Tree?”
“Yeah. I need to see it for myself.”
“That would be reckless of you…It’s so incredibly far, and there are tough monsters on the way. I can tell you’re strong, but…” And before she could stop herself, the words tumbled out of her mouth. “Tell you what. I’ll take you there.”
“Huh…?” Kirito’s eyes grew wide. “No, I couldn’t ask you to do that. Not when we just met…”
“It’s fine! I’ve made up my mind!”
Leafa turned her face away to hide the blush that had snuck over her cheeks. Because everyone in ALO had wings, there was no fast-travel system. The trip to Alne, the city at the center of Alfheim that sat around the World Tree, was equivalent to a real-life journey. The offer she’d just made, to this boy she’d met just a few hours before, was simply unfathomable.
But…she just couldn’t let him go alone.
“Will you be on tomorrow?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Meet here at three o’clock PM, then. I’ve got to leave for now. Go to the inn upstairs to log out. See you tomorrow!”
Before she had even finished speaking, Leafa was waving her hand to bring up the game menu. She could log out instantly anywhere in sylph territory, so she smacked the button at once.
“H-hey, wait!” Kirito blurted out, and she looked up to see him smiling at her. “Thanks.”
She did her best to smile back, and then nodded before hitting the OK button. The world flashed into a rainbow of light, then blacked out. The sensations of Leafa’s body faded away, until only the burning of her cheeks and racing of her heart remained.
Her eyes opened slowly.
The first thing she saw was the familiar ceiling of her room and the large poster she’d pinned to it. It was a custom-made poster of an in-game screenshot blown up as large as she could get it. The picture was of a flying fairy with a long ponytail in the midst of a flock of birds and endless blue sky.
Suguha Kirigaya raised her hands and slowly removed the AmuSphere. The device was two simple rings in a crown-like structure: much more fragile than the original NerveGear but without the same sensation of being clamped into place.
Even back in the real world, her cheeks were still ablaze. She sat up in bed, slapped her face, and raised a silent wail inside her chest.
Aaaahhh!
Waves of belated embarrassment crashed over her at her boldness. Recon (her classmate Shinichi Nagata) once said that when Suguha was Leafa, she was at least 50 percent bolder. Today’s escapade was well above that mark. She writhed in agony, her legs flopping on the bed.
He was such a strange boy. Well, there was no saying whether the player was actually a boy, but Suguha’s instinct told her he was quite close to her age. But between his relaxed demeanor and his occasional mischievous remarks, it was hard to tell for sure.
His personality wasn’t the only mystery, though. Where did that incredible strength come from? In her year of playing ALO, he was the first person she’d come across who didn’t seem beatable in a duel. She spoke his name very quietly.
“Kirito, huh…?”
The first time that Suguha had felt the urge to see a virtual world for herself was just about a year after the SAO Incident began.
Until then, the concept of a VRMMO was nothing but a target of loathing to her, the tool that had literally stolen her brother from her. But the more she held Kazuto’s hand as he slept in his hospital bed, the more she spoke to his deaf ears, the more she began to wonder what his world was like. It was up to her to bridge the distance that was now between them, she had thought.
Midori had given her a long, hard look when Suguha said she wanted an AmuSphere, but she eventually granted her daughter’s request, asking only that she be mindful of the time and her health.
The next day at lunch, Suguha visited the desk of Shinichi Nagata, the biggest gamer in class—for better or for worse—and asked him to come up to the roof with her to discuss a serious topic. The absolute silence and subsequent frenzy of the class after this scene was still the stuff of legend.
Leaning against the chain-link fence around the roof, Suguha asked the hopelessly anticipatory Nagata to teach her about VRMMOs. After several seconds and an entire emotional spectrum of facial expressions, he asked her what kind of game she had in mind.
When Suguha told him that she couldn’t take any time away from her studies and kendo practice, Nagata pushed his glasses up on his nose and muttered some gibberish like, “You’ll want a skill-based entry rather than a grindfest time-sink, then.” Ultimately, his best recommendation was ALfheim Online.
She hadn’t been expecting him to start playing ALO with her, but with the help of his thorough tutorials, Suguha found that she was surprisingly well suited to this virtual world game. There were two main reasons.
First, Suguha’s years of diligent kendo study translated extremely well into the game.
When players squared off in battle, evasion was a foreign concept. It was a foregone conclusion that both sides would hit the other; as long as your total damage was higher, the battle was won. But Suguha’s well-trained reflexes and instincts meant she could easily avoid most attacks. In a way, her almost unfair skill at the game was a natural outcome.
If ALO had been a level-based MMO like so many others, the lack of time to invest in her character meant she would never match the core players. In fact, among the veterans of ALO, Leafa’s stats were actually below average. It was only because ALO was such a skill-based game that she was powerful enough to be considered one of the Five Great Sylphs.
The second thing that drew Suguha to the game was something entirely unique to ALO: the flight system.
She could still easily remember the sensation of absolute joy the first time she got the knack of Voluntary Flight and was able to fly of her own free will.
Suguha was small. Her lack of reach in kendo bouts was a constant thorn in her side, and as a response, she had learned from a young age to always go faster, farther. So the way that ALO let her use that long katana in an overhead stance—impossible when one hand was holding a flight stick—and then slash through foes at extreme long range was bliss beyond compare. And beyond that, there were the sharp dives that threatened to shake her to pieces; the long, gentle cruises at high elevation among the flocks of birds; and so much
more. With the act of flying, Suguha was deeply in love.
So while slow, clumsy Recon called her a “raging speedaholic,” Suguha couldn’t imagine playing ALO without the joy of flight.
After a year of experience in the game, Suguha was a fully dedicated VRMMO player. She’d started this experiment to grow closer to her brother, and now she loved it for what it was.
Several times a day since Kazuto had come back, Suguha had desperately wanted to talk to him about ALO—to share the pains and pleasures of the virtual world she’d finally come to understand with him. But the sight of the shadows behind his eyes kept her from ever broaching the subject.
She was certain that even after the horrors of the SAO Incident, Kazuto still loved the idea of a virtual world. All the NerveGears were supposedly recalled, but he’d gotten his back somehow, and the Sword Art Online ROM card was stuck in the photo stand on his desk.
But the SAO Incident wasn’t over for Kazuto. Not until she woke up.
The thought tore Suguha’s heart to pieces. She never wanted to see him cry in such terrible despair again, the way he had last night. She wanted him to have a smile on his face at all times. And for that reason, she wanted his lost love to wake up.
But she knew that when it happened, Kazuto’s heart would be forever beyond her reach.
If only they’d been actual siblings. She’d never have come to feel this way. She’d never desire to keep Kazuto all to herself.
As she lay back in bed and stared at the poster of the Alfheim sky, Suguha wondered why people didn’t have wings. She wished she could fly as far as she wanted in the real sky, until the tangled web around her heart was blown away.
I stared at the seat that had held the sylph girl named Leafa just moments before, still a bit shaken.
“I wonder what got into her,” I muttered. On my shoulder, I could feel Yui tilting her head in confusion.
“I don’t know…I don’t have my old mental monitoring functions anymore.”
“Figures. Well, it’s nice of her to offer to show me the way.”
“If a map is what you need, I’ve got one. But the more on our side, the safer we’ll be. On the other hand…” Yui stood up to speak directly into my ear. “You shouldn’t cheat on Mama, Papa.”
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